mcconnell and john boehner. no deal can be reached in past without their cooperation. with the meeting comes a glimmer of hope. in the past all the ifisical cliff talks meetings like this have been the least productive of all. whether he meant to or not the senate majority leader may have spoken for a nation exhausted by seemingly endless fiscal cliff negotiations. >> what's going on here? >> reporter: what indeed. president obama returned to the white house in a grim mood. he met with no congressional leaders and said nothing about his efforts to avert the fiscal cliff, talks continue between senior white house and congressional staff, but that's been true throughout this entire saga. with the deadline looming there were dire predictions. >> come the first of this year americans will have less income than they have today. >> reporter: and recriminations. >> now republicans have bent over backwards. we stepped way, way out of our comfort zone. we wanted an agreement. but we had no takers. >> reporter: the senate